I have confessions to make and am ready to take my lashes and/or suggestions.

So here is the story...

1. Never having a car that instilled such a desire to pamper it, I'm completely new to the intricacies of detailing.
2. I rent a house from the late 1920's where the garage is barely wide enough to open the driver's door of a MINI even if the garage was totally empty. It barely fits my workbench, cabinets and rolling tool chest and still be able to reach the washer and dryer. Even the paved part of the driveway is only 8' wide.

Re Detailing

I've purchased a Prima bundle from Detailer's Paradise and have been trying to find my way with using them properly. I've been reading threads in this forum, but am still feeling lost on some things.

• What exactly is 'clay' and when/why is it used?
• How do you remove wax from the crease along bonnet (sport) stripes?
• How do you clean the honeycomb lower grille on an R56?
• How do you wash applicator pads that were used for wax, etc?

Re Driveway/Garage/Protection

To attempt to protect my MINI from the sap of a pair of 100'+ pine trees across the street, I've wedged a white 10'x10' Caravan canopy that has zip shut walls between the side of the house and the hedge (and had to hack away a bunch of the hedge to do so). It may be sort of "ghetto" but doesn't look too bad and I want to protect my baby as much as possible. Even with the canopy, it is not the same as having a garage. So here are my questions:

• Are there any car covers that are better than others?
• I'm afraid that if I put a car cover on and he isn't totally clean that the cover will cause scratches and do more harm than good. Am I correct on this?
• Other than the canopy does anyone have a suggestion keeping in mind that I rent and don't own my house.

Sorry if this was too wordy or I'm posting questions that have been answered a million times already.

Thanks.

lashes and suggestions?

do a search. it's already been discussed except for:

>How do you clean the honeycomb lower grille on an R56?

you can take a boar's hair brush and carshampoo and wash the
honey comb. then take some OG's BlackWow and carefully apply
using a foam applicator and q-tips to get on each honeycomb.
will last a long time.

U'gal, maybe we can tag-team your questions. I'll take a couple.


Car Covers: Yes, there are definitely differences in quality (and cost). Generally, you can fit them into one of two categories:

A) those only for indoor use, and
B) those also suitable for outdoor use.

Since I have more MINIs than garage stalls, I recently purchased a cover for oiutdoor use. I did a reasonable amount of research and decided on this
one: BAVARIAN AUTOSPORT ULTIMATE CAR COVER. You can find it at:


http://www.bavauto.com/shop.asp

Now, your question about placing the cover on the car and the danger of scratching the paint: Yes, that is a concern. You should only install the car cover when your MINI is clean AND dry. So, if it's not freshly washed and dried, I go over mine with the California Duster and the microfiber towel with some detailing spray (Speed Shine or Slick).

Hope that helps.

Unixgal. My other car is in the same situation. It hasn't had a garage for 10+ years now. Sits underneath a forest of oak trees. Lives on a dirt road (100+ feet) in a dirt yard. And, we always had a couple cats that loved to sit on, run on, and "play" on the car.

The Bavarian cover you bought looks a lot like the silvertech cover I use. I prefer multilayer covers though. Evolution 4 material works great. The cover companies change the fabric names all the time. The stormweave fabric is similar to the ones I use. Multilayer material works very well for keeping dust off the car and still letting the paint breath.
http://www.calcarcover.com/how_to_se...spx#stormweave

My car sits under *two* of these covers (this keeps the cats claws from reaching the car), and a third, silvertech cover. That's right, 3 covers. The silvertech is just to keep the other covers clean (since the stormweave covers are expensive compared to the slivertech). The cats hook their claws through the material, 2 covers gives them something to loop through without touching the paint. Not a single scratch in 10 years with this method.

Ok so what's the point. I'm mentioning the 3 covers to show that even with all these layers over the paint (8 layers+silvertech single layer), the car still looks great and the paint can still breath just fine.
Attachment 24583

This car is treated to Zymol waxing and polishing twice a year. At the same time the covers are taken to my local dry cleaners. One thing that helps with keeping the covers clean is to store them in a clean container when not on the car. Don't just drop it on the floor in the garage. A new plastic trash can or box works great for this. The cover you bought looks like it folds up pretty small. The ones I use are big. Too big for my washing machine too. Any sand/dirt particles that get picked up will end up on the car when you cover it.

Before you cover your car, get a duster. Since my little red car here lives in the dirt, it's always dusty on the back fenders.

I use one of these dusters before I cover the cover.
http://www.calcarcover.com/product.a...ource=category

And 90% of the time I clean the windows before covering. But the covers tend to mess up the windows anyway so that is usually the first thing to do after uncovering the car.

I also carry Zymol's spot detailer to clean bird droppings, etc before covering.

I have never claybar'd a car and don't know what advantages that has. I can't get over dragging something like that over the paint but I guess it works since so many on this site seem to use it.

The canopy you got will be great for keeping the sun out and giving you a shaded place to detail.

I use q-tips dipped in a little QD to clean wax from the edges of my stripes.

i finally did my second app of BW yesterday... since May (?)

You can buy a canopy. I did. it's great!

canopy?


we're talking about OG's BlackWow now.

........


or not...